Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A soft, friable, and porous sedimentary rock consisting of calcium carbonate and formed by the evaporation of water, especially at the mouth of a hot spring or on a drying lakebed. It can also be precipitated by algae or bacteria.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rock having a rough or cellular texture, sometimes a fragmental volcanic material, and sometimes a calcareous deposit from springs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- A soft or porous stone formed by depositions from water, usually calcareous; -- called also
calcareous tufa . - A friable volcanic rock or conglomerate, formed of consolidated cinders, or scoria.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the
calcareous deposit oflime found nearhot springs - noun the volcanic rock
tuff
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun hard volcanic rock composed of compacted volcanic ash
- noun a soft porous rock consisting of calcium carbonate deposited from springs rich in lime
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A dull gray, local stone called tufa forms the Surgeon's unimpressive impluvium, while black-and-white mosaic flooring seems to be restricted to two rooms: the tablinum and a cubiculum.
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People sometimes call it tufa, like those stones you see in fish tanks.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Skin Deep Jerome Preisler 2010
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It's not actually known what Edwin's symbol was Bede says he used a Roman-style standard called a tufa but doesn't describe it.
Flight of the Sparrow, by Fay Sampson. Book review Carla 2006
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Prodigious quantities of ashes and cinders were discharged from the craters; and these, deposited and hardened by long pressure under water, formed the reddish-brown earthy rock called tufa, of which the seven hills of Rome are composed.
Roman Mosaics Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood Hugh Macmillan
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It will have to fight against the sand that slips and gradually fills up the small amount of empty space obtained; it will perhaps, without crowbar or pickaxe, have to cut itself a gallery through something tantamount to tufa, that is to say, through earth which a shower has rendered compact.
The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written ...
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The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written ...
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Paleoglot: The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written in stone skip to main
The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written in stone 2009
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The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written ...
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The etymology of Latin tofus 'tufa' isn't written ...
knitandpurl commented on the word tufa
"On the walls of the Castel dell'Ovo, Carlo Andreoli makes out the signs of the sea, the soft tufa eroded by the ever-rising damp, spurts of froth appear, stars flicker, fireworks in the distance, white fires moving, renewing."
Malacqua by Nicola Pugliese, translated by Shaun Whiteside, p 10
January 8, 2018